To “86” something – a term I’m sure you know if you’re in the restaurant industry – is to delete it, or remove it in some way. Over time, plenty of things have been removed from Arcadia University for one reason or another. And at least in my mind, no removal is as important as what happened to Stiteler Auditorium.
If you’re a new student, you might not even know about Stiteler, or what I’m talking about. It’s a decent sized space above Murphy Hall, used occasionally for theater practices and other minor events. If you’ve been on campus a bit longer, you might know bits and pieces, or remember a particular uproar a few years back regarding its renovation. And if you’re a long-time member of the theater department, or particularly invested in campus history, you might have very strong opinions on the aforementioned renovation.
Before we get into the recent outrage, let’s talk about the history. Murphy Hall is one of the oldest buildings on campus, likely from the 1880s, around even before the Gray Towers Castle. It served as the stables of the estate – with what became Stiteler Auditorium being the hayloft.
When Beaver College acquired the modern campus, Stiteler was converted into a chapel, with the lower levels made into a gymnasium. At the time, circa 1920s and 30s, Beaver College didn’t have the funds to fully renovate, meaning many donations were taken. In particular, the donation of $20,000 in 1929 – nearly $370,000 in modern times! – was used to redo the spaces. The donor, one Jane Murphy, still lends her name to the building to this day.
Now, we skipped over it a little bit, but Stiteler Auditorium used to be a chapel. What might seem odd and unrelated now was actually a rather common practice for the time. Many academic institutions, including colleges, had ties to churches – not only for funding, but just because America used to be a far more religious country.
For decades, Beaver College had strong ties to the local church, and some of that was reflected in the fact that Stiteler served as a chapel for ages, until at least the 1970s. Even after Stiteler started to be used for more secular purposes, the general “church aesthetic” was kept. Old photos of the space even show a church organ and stained glass windows (keep those windows in mind, we’ll get back to them in a bit).
Now you might be wondering, how did that all change? If you know Stiteler today, you know that it’s a barren box, without lights, curtains, or even auditorium seating. Some of you might already know the answer to this, but for those who don’t, I’ll give you the quick rundown. Stiteler was completely gutted out in the summer of 2022, for the use of the Physical Therapy department. Essentially, our PT program needed a lot of space, and Stiteler was ripe for the taking. Everything was torn out – the theater lights, the curtains, the organ, and even the stained glass windows were pried out.
Now, it would be one thing for the space to be renovated for the Health Sciences Department – it’s one of the biggest programs on campus, so their needs get tended to fairly quickly. The kicker is that very few people even knew about the renovations, and it was poorly communicated to those on campus. One minute, Stiteler was being used for theater, and the next, an empty box. The PT program only needed the space for a short amount of time, so once they were done, Stiteler was left as is – and how it’s been left up to this day.
Now that’s already looking like a pretty big blunder on Arcadia’s part – tearing up an entire theater space to be used very short term, and never restoring it. But it gets deeper than that. For one thing, the grand organ, donated by the same Jane Murphy who funded renovations in the first place? Completely torn out. Parts of the organ are in the attic of Murphy, but that’s the kind of thing that can’t be put back together.
My main grievance, however, is the stained glass windows. You might’ve seen one on display in the library – it looks fairly generic, a basic portrayal of some religious figure. But that first glance would be missing a part of Beaver College history, and a huge reason why Stiteler’s renovation is such a big deal.
The Stiteler stained glass isn’t just random artwork – they were made by a faculty member, John Hathaway. He did stained glass artwork for a variety of places, including churches in Philadelphia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. Those windows were artwork produced specifically for the school. Further, they’re not just depicting miscellaneous religious figures. Each and every piece of stained glass – six, if I’m counting correctly – symbolically depict other members of Beaver College staff. Not just those who had retired, but specifically those who had passed away. Each member was represented with a different saint, with words and images surrounding them that related to each staff. John Hathaway himself even got one upon his death. One specially designed by Beaver College students with help from Hathaway’s daughter.
Those stained glass windows aren’t just windows – they’re artwork, memorializing real people and are important parts of college history; and during the renovation of Stitler, they were torn out with crowbars. It’s possible they might’ve been thrown away, had a few historically-passionate members of Arcadia staff not saved them. The stained glass is now kept safe and sound in the Landman Library Archives – but is that really a fitting place for art? A dark basement, only to be viewed by a handful of people?
What happened to Stiteler is a tragedy. For a university that prides itself on its rich background, it seems to do so little to try and preserve it – forsaking historically rich areas of campus in favor of short-term gain. I’ve reached out to both Student Government as well as the President of the university, but – at the time of writing – have yet to receive an ultimate response. And unfortunately, that’s about all I, as one person, can do.
But it doesn’t have to be just me. If you’re reading this article and it strikes a chord with you, please raise awareness in some way. If you’re a student, please reach out to Arcadia staff or admin and share this information with them. If enough of us make a big enough protest about this, it might be enough to bring Stiteler’s stained glass back to campus proper. After all, stained glass is only so beautiful because of the sunlight shining through it.
Emma Pegram, Class of ’28
(PS: I have a gallery of the stained glass windows at the bottom. These are the only ones I could find of them still in Stiteler, so apologies for the iffy quality and weird angles. Additionally, there’s a small handwritten letter from Ginny Haust, class of ’51 – an enduring and potent reminder of the lives our school, and these professors, have touched.)
(Feature Image credit to: Arcadia University Media & Communications Department)
